Team India get back to business

The India-Australia series opener is being projected as the fight between two World Champions that will also decide the bigger tussle.

The India-Australia series opener is being projected as the fight between two World Champions that will also decide the bigger tussle between two forms of limited-over games, separated by 30 overs.

And watching India’s Big Three — Sachin Tendulkar, Sourav Ganguly and Rahul Dravid — standing in a huddle waiting for the new captain M S Dhoni to begin the slip cordon’s catching practice, it looks like the stage has been set for an emerging duel on the field between two sets of players, on either side of 30.

Though Dhoni didn’t dwell upon the team composition on the eve of the game, the average age of the playing XI on Saturday is certain to be on the higher side. But despite the Big Three’s outstanding show during the last ODI series in England, the mind-numbing triumph of the young team in South Africa might see fickle fans getting restless on seeing their Twenty20 stars sitting on the sidelines.

And that in turn will mean pressure not just on the team management but even on the in-form senior three. Dhoni once again played it safe, when he said that “The return of Tendulkar, Dravid and Ganguly will enhance the team”.

With Irfan Pathan getting his rhythm back and at the same time enhancing the batting line-up, the shoulder room at the top of the order gets decreased. In case, Dhoni opts to play seven batsmen — Pathan included — the chances are Robin Uthappa and Dinesh Karthik might be doing drinks duty. And if the Indians go in with two off-spinners, Sreesanth will increase the Twenty20 World Champions count on the bench to three.

The story in the Australian camp too is somewhat similar. Injury means the Caribbean World Cup-winning captain Ricky Ponting will be warming the bench and that means six members of Australia’s World Champion team wouldn’t be on field on Saturday.

The other five — Michael Hussey, Shane Watson, Nathan Bracken, Shaun Tait and Glenn McGrath — haven’t even travelled to India for this seven-ODI series for various reasons.

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Gilchrist said that this gave his team a chance to test some youngsters.

“We definitely have to rely on the depth in our squad. We have six changes in this, our first ODI since the World Cup, owing to retirement and injuries and babies being born. We’ve got a few new faces which not a lot of people would have seen a lot of, and we’re confident about them,” he said, pointing to how McGrath got his first chance in the early 1990s after Craig McDermott was indisposed.

This provides a strange contradiction for the two teams. While the Aussie youngsters try to find a place under the sun tomorrow, the scenario in the rival camp has the seniors in a similar situation. India’s big three know that this time, even the slightest of slip-ups wouldn’t be tolerated with the same patience as in the past.

As old India hand Gilchrist said, “India is a land of extremes. If they win they are so popular and if they lose, they are not so popular. It’s up to them how they go about it. Three or four more experienced players coming back and there will always be pressure.”